‘It was empty’ – ‘General Mosquito’ on why Tsatsu Tsikata didn’t want to handle 2020 election petition

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General Secretary of the opposition NDC Johnson Asiedu Nketia has revealed that the lead counsel for the 2020 election petition Tsatsu Tsikata did not want to pursue the case at the Supreme Court.

‘General Mosquito’ as he is affectionately called said the renowned lawyer had cast doubts on the substance of the case due to what he described as the poor collation of results led by Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the chairman of the party.

In a leaked audio, Mr Asiedu Nketia who is seeking to unseat Mr Ofosu Ampofo at the party’s national officers’ election is heard detailing how the opposition party had no collated results during the polls.

“The collated results which were given to me were nothing to write home about. If I had presented it in any court, I would have been embarrassed”.

“So we consulted Tsatsu Tsikata on the matter. The following day, he returned our documents; stating that if this is what we have, then we have no case and that he cannot represent the party, so we should look for another lawyer”, Asiedu Nketia revealed as he further alleged that the NDC’s National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, was the brain behind the party’s inability to effectively collate its results.

He said the system Mr Ofosu-Ampofo brought was not effective and broke down midway into the collation. This, he said, subsequently affected his role as the party’s star witness in the 2020 election petition hearing.

He however assured his audience that the perennial lapses with the party’s collation of election results will be a thing of the past if he is elected as the NDC’s next Chairman.

The disclosure by the NDC stalwart has so far been met with mixed reactions by the general public as well as members of the NDC in particular.

The revelations appear to have sparked an uneasy calm in the NDC, with some party members accusing him of divulging sensitive information in his parochial bid to unseat Mr Ofosu-Ampofo.

According to his critics, his comments were in bad taste, as they can breed mistrust and irreconcilable difference in the party, even after the upcoming polls on Saturday.

His sympathisers have however applauded him for his truthful and bold revelations which they believe can set the tone for healthy reforms for the party in the future.

Currently, Mr Ofosu Ampofo’s role as the NDC’s National Chairman is being threatened by the decision of the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia to unseat him.

In what has been described as the main contest in the party’s upcoming National Delegates Congress, Mr Asiedu Nketia is frantically taking steps to take control of the party as National Chairman ahead of the 2024 general election.

But the incumbent, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, says there have been attempts by party bigwigs to stop Asiedu Nketia from competing with him.

In an earlier interview on Adom TV, he told host, Daakyehene Nana Yaw Asante, that the party’s 2020 flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, and other prominent NDC figures made efforts to stop the contest between himself and the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia.

According to him, even though the move by Asiedu Nketia to unseat him is politically incorrect; the efforts to talk him out of the decision proved futile.

Eligible party delegates will however be presented with an opportunity to elect a new crop of executives to man the affairs of the party on Saturday, December 17, at the Accra Sports Stadium.

SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH with additional files from myjoyonline.com